Musings at Altitude

What would we do if everything had to be done in 3 minutes or less?

Any issue addressed at a staff meeting was limited to 3 minutes.

Any pitch made as to why someone should want your product or service was limited to 3 minutes.

Any presentation that led to a decision was limited to 3 minutes.

Any phone call seeking or providing an update was limited to 3 minutes.

Any interview was limited to 3 minutes.

Any break was limited to 3 minutes.

How much better would we be at providing information, asking questions, delivering relevant data, optimizing our time if everything we did was limited to 3 minute windows?

As I think about the number of things that require action in any form on any given day, it seems like very few of them actually require lots of time for review and decision making.  Most of them have been pre-framed through other sources of information or other events, and that lengthy time spent reviewing what has already been done rarely changes the already seemingly smart answer or action.

If new information came in or a new read on an old situation was needed prior to that decision being made, a “3 minute rule” would certainly make that an intensely relevant 3 minutes.

My premise is that most senior decision makers use lengthy meetings to confirm or affirm what they already know the decision should be.  In cases where they don’t, it would change the pace and value of the meeting tremendously to limit the background discussion and key data presentation to only 3 minutes.

I wonder how much money would be saved and efficiency gained with such an approach?